Lord's is a sell-out today. Some 35,000 people will turn up to watch a young, developing England take on an Indian side containing some of the game's batting galácticos, who are increasingly living on past glories. Rather like a music festival where the Kaiser Chiefs bring on the new stuff while a reformed Genesis, say, have nothing more than greatest hits to offer.

At least with Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman that is - unlike with Phil Collins - a prospect to savour, but as a unit they are starting to look long on aesthetics and shorter on substance. Tendulkar's record against England is awesome but dismal at Lord's, Ganguly has not scored a century of any consequence since he made 144 against Australia in Brisbane four years ago, while Laxman has become an old flirt, titillating but reluctant to go further these days.

Cameos from any will be greatly appreciated and are certain to set the crowd purring. Vignettes, though, will not win a Test match. Dravid alone seems to have the sort of overwhelming desire to deal with English conditions as did Shivnarine Chanderpaul so valiantly for West Indies. Mentally they could be peas in a pod.

India have rarely travelled well as a team and recent times have done little to dispel that notion. Since Kapil Dev led them to a memorable and, for them, unique series win here 21 years ago, they have played 32 more series away from home and won just seven of them, including a trio against Bangladesh and one in Zimbabwe.

Their record in England hardly bears more scrutiny, with four wins in 45 matches, two of them in 1986 at Lord's and Leeds, and one, involving a batting display to die for, at Headingley five years ago. This India side arrives with neither coach nor even the pedigree of their last tour party here, for time has moved them on with little sign of progress. If the middle order is on the way down, there is a problem with the openers, with Wasim Jaffer now likely to have the young second wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik with him. England's new- ball bowlers will fancy their chances.

Nor does it look as if India's bowling has the capacity to restrict an England batting line-up that is increasingly assertive in Test cricket. The best prospect for English conditions which, because of record rainfall in June, promise to be as juicy as those found in early May, would have been Munaf Patel, but he is injured. So in terms of seam there will be reliance on Sri Sreesanth, a feisty fellow with 37 wickets in eight Tests, Zaheer Khan, who is a resurgent left-armer after having his fitness and commitment challenged by Greg Chappell, their last coach, and RP Singh, another inexperienced bowler. Reliance for control will, as ever, fall to the indefatigable Anil Kumble, but Lord's will hardly offer him suitable crumbly conditions with which to do more than defend.

For Michael Vaughan's side, there is now a further opportunity to show that the vast gulf between the achievement of essentially the same players in Test and one-day cricket is an aberration. They remain second in the Test rankings and carry with them an air as confident as it is timid in the shorter game. Success does wonderful things to self-esteem. Into such an environment, it becomes much easier to induct young (or in the case of Ryan Sidebottom, not quite so young) players and today, another, Stuart Broad, the rangy 21-year-old, will almost certainly be asked to begin what could be a long career. He is tall, has good if not express pace and considerable accuracy. His inclusion, along with Sidebottom and Matthew Hoggard, would have meant no place for James Anderson, although his performance in Mumbai, when the sides last met, helped set up a win that squared the series. Hoggard's iffy back means that Anderson will get his chance.

Caution, however: England's most recent record at Lord's needs addressing. Generally, this millennium, it has been excellent after a lengthy period where a Lord's Test had become a millstone. It was said that playing at the hallowed ground inspired visiting teams, while England had a familiarity which removed the edge. As likely, though, was the chronology which once had Lord's as the second Test of the summer, by which time touring sides had ironed out faults, got used to the conditions and had begun to gel as a unit.

All that has changed now and in Tests since 2000, England have won eight, drawn four and lost only to Australia, twice, and South Africa. However, three of the draws have come in the last matches, against Sri Lanka, Pakistan and West Indies. In each of these, England's bowlers have failed to take 20 wickets, which cannot wholly be explained by the pitch's transformation into a benevolent batting friend as the games wore on. This game may be a question of dodging the showers, but to succeed, England probably need to take advantage of the dampness early on, together with their own familiarity with the conditions and ball, and then score sufficiently fast and heavily to give themselves the chance second time around.